• 3CD set containing much-loved UK soul act The Foundations’ recordings for Pye including the hits, ‘Baby Now That I’ve Found You’ (UK #1, US #11), ‘Back On My Feet Again’ (UK #18), ‘Any Old Time (You’re Lonely And Sad)’ (UK #48), ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ (UK #2, US #3), ‘In The Bad Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)’ (UK #8) and ‘Born To Live, Born To Die’ (UK #46).
• Plus The Foundations’ UK albums, ‘From The Foundations’ (1967), ‘Rocking The Foundations’ (1968) and ‘Digging The Foundations’ (1969) in full.
• And tracks from the 1969 Marble Arch label compilation ‘The Foundations’ including superb versions of Freddie Scott’s ‘Am I Groovin’ You’ and Bob And Earl’s ‘Harlem Shuffle’ plus the A and B sides of The Foundations’ Pye singles, Clem Curtis solo recordings and rarities.
The embryonic Foundations formed in London in 1965 as The Ramong Sound, then The Ramongs, fronted Sam And Dave-style by two black singers Clem Curtis and Raymond Morrison AKA Ramong. When Morrison left, he was briefly replaced by the future “God Of Hellfire” Arthur Brown before the group settled on a line-up of white British guitarist Alan Warner, bassist Peter Macbeth and drummer Tim Harris, Sri Lankan keyboardist Tony Gomez, Dominican trombonist Eric Allandale, Jamaican tenor saxophonists Pat Burke and Mike Elliott with Curtis as lead singer.
At Warner’s instigation, the now eight-piece changed their name to The Foundations in January 1967 and they honed their craft at the Butterfly Club, an old basement gambling den in Westbourne Grove where Rod Stewart sat in with them. All went well at the club until gangsters running a protection racket tied Curtis to a chair and held a knife to his throat. A new headquarters in a mini cab office proved safer and the band were soon supporting US soul acts Edwin Starr and The Toys.
After signing to Pye Records, The Foundations became the first multi-racial group to hit the top spot in England with their debut release ‘Baby Now That I’ve Found You’ in 1967. They were also the first British soul act to have a hit in the USA where they toured.
When Clem Curtis and Mike Elliott split with the band in 1968, the band bounced back with ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ co-written by Manfred Mann singer Mike D’Abo and sung by new vocalist Colin Young that was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The song reached a new audience when featured in the 1998 hit film, There’s Something About Mary. It’s B-side ‘New Direction’ saw the group experimenting with psychedelia while the heavy RnB of 1970 single ‘I’m Gonna Be A Rich Man’ has become a latter day mod favourite.
